Production and promotions company opens
It’s Showtime offers printing, recording, management, booking, sound and lighting services
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| John Parsons stands outside the defunct Digitz Night Club building at 114 S. Peoria Ave. Wednesday, where he and his partner, Andrew Kennedy, are opening It's Showtime, a management company for local bands that will provide promotions and production services. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com) |
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DIXON – Local musicians soon will have a place they can patronize for all their musical and performance needs.
John Parsons and Andrew Kennedy, both of Sterling, will open their business, It’s Showtime, at 114 S. Peoria Ave. by next week. They offer printing, recording, management, booking, sound and lighting services.
Parsons formed the entertainment company a few months ago. The website is itsshowtime.net and there’s a Facebook page.
“It’s Showtime is kind of like a one-stop shop for local bands,” said Kennedy, its promotional manager. “We do everything from merchandise to sound and lighting at shows.
“Our goal is to take the local bands and get them off to stages at the bars and try to put them up on a bigger stage, more of a professional stage.”
When contacted by a local band, It’s Showtime will listen to the group’s music and determine its style.
“As long as [it’s] a decent sound and as long as they seem like they can make it somewhere and they have the drive to make it somewhere, we offer the help to work with them,” Kennedy said.
“What we do is we say, here’s what you get to play the show. As long as the band’s happy with that, we pay them that and we take the additional net.”
It’s Showtime also can produce and sell themed merchandise for a band, such as T-shirts and posters, Kennedy said.
Half of the 3,000-square-foot building will be occupied by the print shop, which also will produce promotional materials such as banners and signs, Kennedy said.
They also will do outside print jobs, although their primary focus will be working with local bands, the 24-year-old said.
Their first big event is the End of All Ball Dec. 21 at The Brandywine. Three bands will perform: Eliminator, a ZZ Top tribute band from Chicago; The Funnies, a local ‘70s band and Trippin’ Molly, a Dixon band that plays music from the late 90s and early 2000s.
“We’re going to have quite a large show,” Kennedy said. “The goal is to bring people around here to have a good time watching bands play ... be able to eat dinner there, be able to drink there without having to pay the expensive bar fees and things like that.”
The theme is based on the Dec. 21 2012 end of the world prophecy.
“We decided to throw a bash for everyone. Whether or not the world ends, at least there’s a party going on,” Kennedy said. “Even if the world does end, the party continues in the afterlife.”
